SOME BACKGROUND ON THIS REPORT
Total retail spend in New Zealand for the 28 days ending 28 September 2015 was $3.3 billion. This represents an
increase of 2.8% compared to the same period last year, and an increase of 1.7% when compared to the previous month.
The categories showing strongest growth year on year continue to be Home & Building Supplies (+14.1%) and Travel &
Accommodation (+12%). The gains in Home & Building Supplies and Travel & Accommodation continue being driven by
growth in the North Island.
Of the four categories showing declines year on year, Fuel & Service Stations showed the greatest decline (-6.6%)
followed by minor declines in Recreation & Entertainment (-0.6%) and Books & Stationary Stores (-0.2%). While Clothing
and footwear showed declines of 3.1% year on year, this category also showed their first month on month increase since
April of 4.4%.
QUARTERLY SUMMARY
SEPTEMBER 2015
The total quarterly retail spend for the 91 days ending 30 September 2015 was $10.6 billion, continuing the trend of
small increases when compared to the same period last year (+2.5%), but decreases when compared to the previous
quarter (-1.5%). Home & Building Supplies continues a growth trend and has increased to 3.7% from the 0.9% reported
in the August figures. Travel & Accommodation continues to show declines vs the previous quarter (-4.0%) which is
consistent with the seasonal nature of this industry.
The categories where the quarter declined most year on year were Fuel & Service Stations (-5.6%) and Recreation &
Entertainment (-3.2%) with Clothing & Footwear showing declines of 3% year on year and continuing quarterly declines
(from -3.3% in August to 14.1% for September).
In terms of absolute sales Supermarkets & Food retailers continue to be the dominant category at $3.6 billion for the
quarter, more than twice as much as the next category Café/Restaurants/Bars with $1.4 billion and Fuel/Service
Stations with $1.1 billion. Unlike Fuel & service Stations, on a quarterly basis, the Supermarket & Food and
Café/Restaurants/Bars categories both continued growth when compared to last year with increases of 1.3% and 5.4%
respectively.
SELECTED REGIONS OF INTEREST
MONTHLY TRENDS - AUCKLAND
The Auckland region’s year on year performance remained positive in all but two categories. Fuel & Service Stations
saw a decline of 6% while Books and Stationary reported minor declines of 1.1%. The strongest growth categories for
the Auckland region were Travel & Accommodation (+23.5%) and Home Building Supplies (+20.1%). While Clothing and
Footwear reported a comparatively modest 3.8% increase, this was the highest amongst only three other regions
reporting positive year on year figures for the category.
MONTHLY TRENDS - HAWKES BAY
Hawkes Bay showed steady overall performance with growth in ten out of twelve categories when compared to the
same period last year. Declines were seen in the Clothing and Footwear and Fuel & Service stations of 4.7% and 3.6%
respectively. While the majority of regions saw decreases in Recreation and Entertainment, the Hawkes bay region
bucked the trend with a year on year increase of 4.7%.
MONTHLY TRENDS - OTAGO
Continuing the trend over the past quarter, the Otago region reports flat performance when comparing year on year
figures. Poorest performing categories were Fuel & Service Stations at 11.4% and Recreation & Entertainment at 11.3%.
Changes since last month are looking more positive with only two categories showing relatively minor decreases; Health
Goods & Services (-2.9%) Fuel & Service Stations (-0.4%).
Total Retail Spend is up for year on year (+2.8%)
Home & Building Supplies gained most (+12.5%)
Department Stores also saw growth (+6.9%)
Half of our regions showed an increase year on year
REGIONS UP THIS MONTH 8
CATEGORIES UP THIS MONTH 8
Fuel & Service Stations category continuing down (-6.6%)
Clothing & Footwear decreased year on year (-3.1%)
Of the eight regions showing decreases Tasman showed
the greatest drop of 4.3% followed by Marlborough at 4%
REGIONS UP THIS MONTH 3
CATEGORIES UP THIS MONTH 8
ONLINE RETAIL MARKET SUMMARY
SEPTEMBER 2015
Total online spend for the 28 days ending 28 August 2015 is $226 million which represents an increase vs the same
period last year of 0.21%. This gain is made up of a 5.7% increase in online spend with local New Zealand retailers and
incorporates a 6.6% drop in online spend with off shore merchants.
The strongest online sector overall remains Travel & Accommodation, which took 69.5% of total online spend. This
sector continues to see strong gains year on year of 10%. Positive year on year changes were recorded for Health
Goods & Services (+4.5%), Travel & Accommodation (+8.9%) and Liquor stores (+39.3%). The Home & Building
Supplies category recorded an impressive growth year on year of 57.2%, albeit from a very small base with online
spend representing only 1% of the category spend.
ONLINE: NZ VS OFF SHORE
NZ merchants accounted for 58.2% of Online in September, representing an increase of 2.2%.
Spend with off shore merchants saw decreases in September across all categories with the exception of two. The
Furniture / Appliances / Electronics category recorded an increase of 18.2% for off shore merchants (which was in
contrast to a decrease recorded for New Zealand merchants of this category of 71.1%). We also saw an increase in the
Health Goods & Services of 3.1% for the off shore proportion of on-line spend.
New Zealand merchants saw year on year growth for six categories with decreases in four. Of the decreasing on-line
spend in New Zealand Furniture / Appliances / Electronics saw the greatest decrease followed by Books & Stationary
Stores (-28.3%), Recreation & Entertainment (-16.3%) and a small decrease for Department stores (1.2%).
